chicago

chicago has and will likely always be one of my favorite us cities, despite this last trip having been a bit of a rough one. much of it can be attributed to my still being sick, and the rest to the unfortunate timing of everyone having hit their limit.

the co-workers i was traveling with are some of my favorites, but we are all tired, have been traveling too much, and really just want to be home. as a result, we ended up taking our frustrations out on each other during the show, which, in some cases, was not pretty.

the good news is that we genuinely like and respect one another, so in the final hours of the trip, disagreements were resolved, fences mended, and all will proceed as normal.

despite the turmoil, we still managed to enjoy chicago. when i arrived, it was in the middle of the filming for oprah's season premiere, an outdoor concert kick-off that shut down michigan avenue. my hotel was very close to the action, which, despite my best efforts otherwise, turned out to be as close as i could get!



after setup on the following day, and after most of my co-workers had arrived, we all headed out to have our own kick-off of sorts-pizza!

giordano's is a chicago pizza staple, and one i've never had the pleasure of enjoying before. we, of course ordered the stuffed crust pizza and enjoyed every single bite of it. i'm drooling just thinking about it. mmmmmm.



the following evening, i dragged along the group for another adventure i'd never experienced before - the willis tower (which was, prior to july 28, known as the sears tower). the building is the tallest in the united states, and as the elevator rose the 103 stories, a video indicated when we were passing the heights of other well known buildings....the empire state building, the eiffel tower....it was actually quite interesting!





the highlight of the sears tower is 'the ledge'. the ledges (there are actually three of them) extend about 4 feet from the skydeck at 1,353 feet up. the glass, as it turns out, is only 1 1/2 inches thick, although can somehow hold 5 tons of weight. as you might imagine the experience made for some great photos. :)



we arrived in time to get some daylight photos, enjoy the setting of the sun, and watch the city lights come alive. it was absolutely beautiful.



on friday morning, i offered to take my co-worker julianne, who has never been to chicago before, to see a few landmarks.



we took the subway down to the museum campus, which includes the field museum, the aquarium, the planetarium, and soldier field - all of which are incredible facilities. i love the way the campus is laid out, and had there been more time, i would have enjoyed wandering through them again.



since time was limited however, we opted to start walking back along the lakeshore, stopping first at buckingham fountain, which was even more impressive than i remembered it.



we also, of course, stopped at the giant bean in millennium park and took fun reflective photos.

the following, and final day of the show, was fairly quiet. that is, until vicki missed her flight. most of the team was heading out on saturday evening, and had checked out in the afternoon. as such, my room turned in to the camp out spot, as they staggered their airport departures. julianne and vicki were the last to leave, and i had been encouraging that they do so for 20 minutes before they actually took my gentle nudging.

for vicki, that 20 minutes turned out to be the difference between being able to check her bag. and since she couldn't check her bag, she was stuck. so, very frustrated, and clearly overwhelmed, she headed back to the hotel for a slumber party with moi! i had a room with double beds and vick and i are close enough that it made more sense than her picking up another room night.

we enjoyed dinner, came back and ordered dessert from room service before calling it night. we headed to the airport together on sunday morning and she was able to make the first standby flight out, while i was enjoying a row to myself on my direct flight. probably the smoothest travel leg i've had yet!